In his Dharma talk on November 16, 2025, our teacher Fred reminded us that our emotional suffering arises in our minds, nowhere else, which leads us to ask ourselves: What is the cause? What's underneath the restlessness, the need for stimulation, the complaints about the job, the distress about the world, the unease about relationships, the emotional afflictions? What's causing all this to arise?

For many of us, our minds are not used to going in this inner direction. We are used to pointing the finger outside ourselves. If you can find the inner cause and eradicate or lessen the cause, ending our suffering becomes easier. Thich Nhat Hanh actually said we don't need any "thing" to be happy. The potential for happiness already is present in our minds. We just have to learn to mine our own treasure.

Fred shared that the cause of our suffering comes from our strong identification with an ego that thinks the world and the people in it should be different than they are. A lot of our emotional suffering in life is self created, yet we believe the cause is "out there". If you think it's out there, then the solution is to work hard to control others and external events. The problem with that is that the world won't cooperate with us. It is operating from its own causes and conditions. 

After giving time for reflection, in Q&A with those attending in person and online, Fred summarized: "The collective thought of the sangha is the cause is because I want things (and myself) to be other than they are. At its root is our wrong perceptions about reality. We don’t see how things really are. If we can let go of our distorted thinking about life and work with it as it is, it will be much easier to intelligently respond to it.

"Could it be this simple? Actually, it is that simple. So, why don’t we all do it? Just accept the world, people and myself as they are. I'm not talking about condoning or not condoning the way things are. I'm talking about accepting reality.